Pinterest attracted $ 150 million of investment and is now estimated at $ 12.3 billion

06/07/2017

One of the hottest start-ups in the Silicon Valley has attracted more than $ 1 billion since its inception in 2010.

Mike Mozart via flickr

Visual social network Pinterest announced closure of a new investment round for $ 150 million. The company specified that the service was financed by the same investors who had already invested in Pinterest, reports Bloomberg. Their names are not disclosed. Thus, the company has attracted more than $ 1 billion since its foundation in 2010 by ex-Google employee Ben Zilberman, businessmen Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra, who left the project in 2012 after joining the investment company Andreessen Horowitz.

The company's value is now estimated at $ 12.3 billion. The funds were attracted for the same price of shares as two years ago, as the small company is not able to compete with the growth of other players in the market, the agency notes. In April 2015, it attracted $ 210 million when assessing the service at $ 11 billion. In total, Pinterest received more than $ 1.4 billion of investments during its existence.

The company notes that they plan to send funds to develop a new search technology for visual materials - now users will be able to use images instead of tags to find what they need. Some of the money will go to marketing: the service intends to expand its user base outside the US. Now about 40% of all users of the service live in this country.

According to analysts, the service is only now entering normal financial indicators. For example, this year the company's revenue may exceed $ 500 million, which is 66% better than results of the previous year and also exceeds Snapchat and Twitter’s rates for years before the IPO of these companies.

Bloomberg clarifies that the company receives funds, selling advertising, which is similar to service messages. Every month, 175 million people use Pinterest to view and publish images related to fashion, travel, cooking and other interests. Sources familiar with this issue told the agency that the whole company from San Francisco is aiming to receive more than $ 500 million this year while not being in a hurry to move to the public sphere.